Kyrgyzstan: Landslide Kills 38. Premier Visits Tragedy Site - 21 April, 2003 - News

A mammoth landslide crushed 13 houses to kill 38 last night in the village of Kara-Taryk, Osh Region in Kyrgyzstan. An approximate hundred rescuers are working on the site.

Five bodies have been recovered for now from houses at the slide edge. 33 or more remain buried under a mass of soil which experts estimate at more than 1.5 million cubic metres. The rescuers have no hope to come at survivors but "the search will go on until all victims are found," say prime-ministerial PR.

Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev took a plane to the site to see the tragedy with his own eyes and arrange survivor relief. Kurmanbek Osmonov, his first deputy; Naken Kasiyev, Osh regional governor; and Satybaldy Chyrmashev, Minister of Ecology and Emergency Relief, are already in the village, reports the government press service.

The national government has decreed to allocate 200,000 soms, roughly US$4,300, to every bereaved family. Villagers whose houses are reduced to debris or damaged will be entitled to government aid to restore their dwellings.